Do we really need to consume so much?
Can we reduce out trips to the market?
How can we reduce wastage?
Over the past two months of the Covid-19 lockdown, we have all been asking ourselves questions. Among the many things that have been dusted out from storage and rescued from a careless toss into the garbage bin are these little 60 ml bottles of ink.
Apart from saving us a few hundred rupees in the new fangled use-and-throw gel pens, these ink bottles also tell us about changing company fortunes, inflation, shelf-life and even consistency in product design.
I had purchased the 60ml bottle of 'Permanent Black' Camel black ink (yellow pack) in 2005 for INR 12.00. Fifteen years later, I got a similar bottle of 'Royal Blue' ink for INR 20.00. At a time when disposable gel pens costing about INR 10.00 get jammed if you don't use them for a few months it is quite amazing to see how you can just refill and start using a fountain pen with ink purchased more than a decade ago!
The smell of fountain pen ink is bound to revive old memories - of stained hands, spilled bottles and frayed nibs; Of that flick of the wrist which would send a lovely arc of droplets across a wall or a school uniform, and, for folks from Trivandrum, a tiny shop called the "Pen Hospital" which specialised in repairing fountain pens.
On the face of it you might also think that the ink bottle has remained more or less unchanged over the years, but look closer and you see subtle differences: "Camel" has changed to "Camlin". The tiny camel that was walking towards the lettering is now going in the opposite direction. Ink which was packed in a heavy glass bottle with a metal cap now comes in a light, cheap, all plastic bottle. The company too has been taken over (2012) by a Japanese conglomerate and is now called Kokuyo Camlin Ltd.
At a time when all the stationery shops are closed, it is quite amazing to think of the number of ballpoint, gel and roller refills we use every year, and to realise just how many of these can be replaced by a simple, 60ml bottle of fountain pen ink!
-----------------
LINKS & REFERENCES:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokuyo_Camlin
* (2013) - https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/japan-s-kokuyo-to-buy-majority-stake-in-camlin-111050200075_1.html
* https://penhouse.in/
* About Ink Refills - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBNxSXm-EE
* Difference between ballpoint, gel and roller-point - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HQR8TqLJCs
Can we reduce out trips to the market?
How can we reduce wastage?
Over the past two months of the Covid-19 lockdown, we have all been asking ourselves questions. Among the many things that have been dusted out from storage and rescued from a careless toss into the garbage bin are these little 60 ml bottles of ink.
Apart from saving us a few hundred rupees in the new fangled use-and-throw gel pens, these ink bottles also tell us about changing company fortunes, inflation, shelf-life and even consistency in product design.
I had purchased the 60ml bottle of 'Permanent Black' Camel black ink (yellow pack) in 2005 for INR 12.00. Fifteen years later, I got a similar bottle of 'Royal Blue' ink for INR 20.00. At a time when disposable gel pens costing about INR 10.00 get jammed if you don't use them for a few months it is quite amazing to see how you can just refill and start using a fountain pen with ink purchased more than a decade ago!
The smell of fountain pen ink is bound to revive old memories - of stained hands, spilled bottles and frayed nibs; Of that flick of the wrist which would send a lovely arc of droplets across a wall or a school uniform, and, for folks from Trivandrum, a tiny shop called the "Pen Hospital" which specialised in repairing fountain pens.
On the face of it you might also think that the ink bottle has remained more or less unchanged over the years, but look closer and you see subtle differences: "Camel" has changed to "Camlin". The tiny camel that was walking towards the lettering is now going in the opposite direction. Ink which was packed in a heavy glass bottle with a metal cap now comes in a light, cheap, all plastic bottle. The company too has been taken over (2012) by a Japanese conglomerate and is now called Kokuyo Camlin Ltd.
At a time when all the stationery shops are closed, it is quite amazing to think of the number of ballpoint, gel and roller refills we use every year, and to realise just how many of these can be replaced by a simple, 60ml bottle of fountain pen ink!
-----------------
LINKS & REFERENCES:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokuyo_Camlin
* (2013) - https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/japan-s-kokuyo-to-buy-majority-stake-in-camlin-111050200075_1.html
* https://penhouse.in/
* About Ink Refills - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBNxSXm-EE
* Difference between ballpoint, gel and roller-point - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HQR8TqLJCs
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